Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1885-1890, 1887-01-01
MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOLS.

Written fer the Tribune By II. r. Wheeler.
"The school Of the future that is to dig
Nifty labor, that is to generate power, where
the brain informs the muscle, where the
mind, the eve and the hand constitute an
invincible triple alliance, will be the
manual training and educational school
combined"
It SHOULD be a public school, and should
be a part of all our public schools Wherev-
er practicable. It is industrial as we'll as
educational. As the apprentice system
has been destroyed in America, this insti-
tuition will take its place, and give US
skilled laborers in every department of
labor. 1t is teaching through things in
stead of through signs of things. AS an
old saw mill man once said to so me
"You can't learn to tend a saw by reading
a book. but you must do it yourself" 1t
is teaching by object lessons, the method
of the kindergarten system, and naturally
succeeds it in the course of education, and
should be applied to all our common
schools, until the child who intends to en-
ter a learned profession leaves fer col
lege.
"This school is destined to unite in in
dissoluhle bonds, science and art" Sci
ence is learned in the schools, and art,
chow to do things0 is learned in the shop
or laboratory, or by doing by the hand and
eye what you want to do. As for example,
it a man has a mind to make a single, an
axe helve or a steam engine, the way for
him to know how to do it, is to do it. Then
he knows practically. 1t is the same in
chemistry or natural philosophy. He may
read the best books written on these sub
iects; vet, an hour of practical experiment
each day for a few weeks, will teach him
more than a life time spent merely in
reading the books. ITO learn how to do
a thing, is to do it."
The late Horace Mann once said: "The
labor of the world has been performed by
ignorant men, by classes doomed to igno-
rance from sire to SON." And | might add
by the slaves of all times.
In the future true education will result
from combined manual with educational
training. Boys trained in these schools
will in the future be the true Knight of
Labor; 1 because, sbesides being skilled
in labor, they will have the education to
know its value, and hence cannot be i'm
posed upon and oppressed by any man or
set of men.
Manual training teaches the hand and
the eye how to use tools. Carlysle says:
"Man is a tool using animal. He can use
tools, devise tools; with these the granite
mountains melt into light dust before him;
he kneads iron as if it were soft paste; seas
are his smooth highway, winds and fire
his unwearying steeds. Nowhere do you
find him without tools: without tools he is
nothing, with tools he is all" His pos
session and knowledge Of the use of tools
makes all the difference in the world be-
tween him and the savage man.
The axe, the saw, the plane, the ham
mer. the square the chisel and the file are
the universal tools of the arts, and the
modern machine shop is an aggregation OF
them rendered automatic and driven by
steam or water"
Webster defines science to be "the COM
prehension and understanding of truth,
investigation of truth for its own sake.
Truth ascertained, that which is known,
etc.
The same authority defines art to be
ssthe employment of means to accomplish
the desired end; the adaptation of things in
the natural world to the uses of life; the
application of knowledge or power to
practical purposes. Opposed to science or
to speculative principles, as the art Of
building or engraving, or painting or
sculpture"
The a%ncients and many modern knew
more OF science than Of art. They had a
knowledge Of the powers of steam and
electricity, but had not the art practical
experiment. to apply them to the daily
uses of life. It was left for a Watts and
a Fulton, a Franklin and a Morse to make
this application Applying science to art
is what manual training will do. The
knowledge learned in the school room, is
put to practical use in the work shop, and
should be taught together part of the
day being devoted to each by the pupils in
the manual training school. Every boy or
girl in America who is learning a me-